


Guidelines

by Mendeia



Series: What Beyond (The Temple Steps Alight) [5]
Category: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Guide Powers, Hand-Waving Science for Reasons, Oneshot, Quantum Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 19:32:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/pseuds/Mendeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is time for the Guides (and the scientists) of SELF to start figuring out what, exactly, all this Sixth and Seventh business is about...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guidelines

**Author's Note:**

> So, this one takes place within a few weeks of Kaimi's initial arrival. Which means, having read "Inevitability," you already know at least some of what will be uncovered about Ngama and Kaimi. But that's okay.
> 
> Also, I apologize to all physics in general, and physicists, and quantum particles. As Benton says, the thing with this stuff is you really can summarize and simplify it to the point of inaccuracy, but sometimes that's the only way to explain it. For the best resource ever on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics, I highly recommend the book 'Science of the Craft' by William H. Keith. It's bent towards a Wiccan world perspective, but it will teach you more about how this stuff may actually work than any other source I've ever found.
> 
> On with the science!
> 
> Enjoy!

"I'm not so sure this is a good idea," Jim said warningly.

"Aw, come on, man! After all the years of me testing you, I'd have thought you'd be looking forward to the chance to get back at me," Blair grinned.

But Jim didn't rise to the bait. "This isn't a test, Darwin. This is an experiment."

"Not really," Hadji said. "If you wish to be technical, what we did the first time was an experiment. This is merely following in the path we have walked once before with greater confidence and preparedness."

"How can you be so calm?" Jim looked sharply at Jonny who was leaning easily against a mostly-buried table in Benton's lab. In spite of the fact that the lab was in a building of its own on the lodge's property about as far from any human habitation as it could get, even way out here the evidence of the many Sentinels who had come by for testing and training was spread everywhere and on every available surface.

Jonny shrugged. "One, 'cause calm or not, it's not like I've got any real right to say no. Two, 'cause this time I'll be here to help. And three, 'cause it's Hadji. He can handle it." He turned to his Guide, blue eyes meeting brown alight with trust.

"We do not intend to have either Blair nor Hadji actually exercise their…abilities," Benton said. "This is purely reconnaissance. And, perhaps, research."

"We need to understand how the Seventh works, Jim," Blair argued. "Right now, we've got a lot of theories and no facts. We need to get a handle on its basic parameters, on what makes it work. And maybe find a way to identify what makes Ivanna different from Hadji and me."

"And when we have learned that," Ngama spoke up, "we can determine the status of myself and Kaimi, as well as Angie and Melly."

"And all the other Sentinels," Blair added. "We have to know which Sentinels have a Seventh and we have to figure out how to find Guides with it, too, so we can start matching them up."

Jim looked around the room. Jonny was still looking confidently at his brother. Ivanna sat quietly, having opted not to voice an opinion on a matter in which she could not participate. Angie and Melly were leaning against one another taking in the discussion but not ready to comment; they were still rather new to all this, but as the only other Guide around, Melly had to be present and Angie wasn't about to leave her side. Race had agreed to hold down the fort back at the lodge with Jessie, but Rafe had decided to stay to watch over his sister and her Guide. Ngama and Kaimi were holding hands, and it didn't take Sentinel senses to note that both were tense, wondering what would be discovered and what it might mean for them.

"Come on, Jim," Blair urged. "We're just taking a little dip in the brain pool. You'll even be there to act as lifeguard if we start drowning."

"So what are you going to do – exactly?" He could feel his resolve weakening.

"We have some simple objectives," Hadji said. "First, Blair and I will attempt to reach the Seventh Door once more, this time with you and Jonny to anchor us. We will note how the experience differs from our previous attempt in the Arctic. Second, we will try to use the knowledge that opens to us once beyond it to assess Ivanna and compare her to Kaimi and Melly. Third, we will establish if we can see an echo of something similar in Ngama and Angie. If all that is successful, we may venture farther afield to analyze other Sentinels on site."

"Lastly," Benton added, "I will be monitoring both Jonny and Hadji on my equipment," he gestured around his lab. "I am already familiar with their brain activity in a variety of waking, sleeping, and meditating states, so I have a series of baselines against which to compare them."

"The joys of being a scientist's kid," Jonny rolled his eyes.

Benton smiled at his son. "I have also tested them both while Jonny practiced with his five enhanced Sentinel senses, which has given me a few avenues to pursue already. But this would be our first attempt with the more mysterious remaining two."

"If all goes as planned, we won't try to so much as push over a thimble," Blair said. "We're just getting in there and looking around."

Jim sighed. "Sandburg…"

"Look," Blair interrupted, his gaze hardening. "You can't actually prevent me from doing this. Aside from how it's _my_ brain and _my_ choice, this is what being a Guide is _for_. It's not my place to stop you being a Sentinel. You don't have say over this." His tone softened. "But you can opt not to participate. And I'll have to decide if I do it solo or if I just stay back and let Hadji try on his own."

"All right. Enough. I give up," Jim said with resignation. "If you're so set on doing this, you better believe I'm going with you. But I don't like it."

"Okay. Just sit tight a moment while I get Jonny and Hadji set up." Benton moved to where his sons sat in chairs side-by-side and started slipping crowns of diodes and monitors over their heads. Jonny grabbed Hadji's hand and squeezed it.

"I'm with you, my brother," he said very softly. "Don't try to go off on your own this time."

"I won't," Hadji promised. "Together there is nothing a united Sentinel and Guide cannot do."

"And that, Jim," Blair whispered, "is why they're stronger than us. Come on. You said it yourself. The water's fine. Stop holding us both back, for once."

Jim regarded his Guide seriously, then grabbed Blair and pulled him to his chest, holding him crushingly tightly. "I'm not trying to hold you back, Blair. I just don't want to lose you."

"Then you better learn how to follow me," Blair answered. "Come on." He pulled free and drew Jim down to sit beside him on the mat where they could meditate.

It took Jim far longer to drop off than the others, but before long the four of them emerged in the jungle. Without needing to exchange a word, they moved towards the Temple of Light.

"I never noticed before," Jim said as he stared up at the stone edifice, "but this one doesn't look like the one in Mexico."

"You're right," Blair bounced. "This one is for Sentinels as well as Guides. I have a whole theory about how the ancient people who built the one in Mexico knew all about Guides – they'd have to, to get it right – but they opted to leave most references to Guides out of the actual temple in an attempt to keep their enemies from learning the truth about Guides."

"Lecture later, professor," Jim smirked at his Guide, who seemed more vibrant and at ease here than he did in the real world, and given how cheerful Blair was back in Cascade, that was saying something. "Where to?"

"This way," Hadji said, leading the way into the Temple and down the corridor.

"I've been here," Jim said, "in a vision or a dream. I tried to get up the steps around that corner but I couldn't."

"I think a Sentinel without a Seventh won't be able to see the steps, but even one with the sense can't get through the Door," Blair offered. "It's…it's a Guide thing."

They rounded the corner and faced the Seven steps, wide enough for all four to walk abreast. As if drawn magnetically, the Sentinels reached for their Guides, clasping their hands tightly. Together, they started up the steps.

Jim remembered this. He remembered the last few steps being difficult, as though he were trying to walk against a current he couldn't feel. But with Blair holding onto him, the weight that he could oddly sense surrounding them all didn't seem to come to bear on his shoulders this time. Jonny didn't even appear to notice the pressure – he was more interested in watching each step light up as they touched it.

At the top, they paused.

"This is where we leave you," Hadji said softly. "You cannot join us beyond the Seventh Door, but if you remain here, we will not be lost there."

"Come back soon, okay?" Jonny asked, a strange fear seizing him. He knew, knew in a way that he didn't need to try to explain that Hadji's place was beyond that Door and his was to guard it, but he also knew that his Guide was not altogether safe there. However, he shifted aside to let Hadji pass him, only releasing his hand when the darkness of the Door swallowed it.

"It's okay, Jim," Blair said, meeting his Sentinel's eyes. "I'll be all right."

"I'll be right here," Jim said roughly.

"I know."

And Blair stepped through the arc into the dark.

"Can you see it?" Jonny asked, staring into the seamless void that had swallowed their Guides.

"No. Wait…" Jim opened his sight, cranking the dial almost all the way. "Yes. They're…in space? Something like that. It's all kind of distorted."

"We can hear you, you know," came Blair's voice. "We're no farther from you now than we were before. We're just…"

"We have stepped into a new plane of enlightenment," Hadji filled in the blank. "We have raised our awareness to a place beyond common consciousness."

"Thanks for the clarity," Jim grumbled.

"What do you see?" Jonny wanted to know.

"Close your eyes, Sentinel," Hadji said. "See not with your vision, but with your heart and our bond. You may not be able to join me here, but you should be able to share in what I can perceive."

Jonny shrugged but did as he was bid, letting the connection to his Guide draw him along as he would if it were Hadji's hand pulling him forward. "I…oh _wow_ …what…Hadj…"

"Come on, Jim," Blair teased. "Don't want to get shown up by a kid."

It took Jim longer once again, but he found that, the same way he knew how to search with his hearing for a particular sound, he could search with his mind for his Guide. And then they were together in the dark.

-==OOO==-

The four of them woke at almost the same moment, their eyes drifting open.

"Are you all right?" Benton leaned over his boys. "Did it work?"

"It did indeed," Hadji smiled. "Quite spectacularly, in fact."

"So, who wants the verdict?" Blair grinned, bouncing almost at once to his feet. The instant he was up, though, his head swam and he tipped a bit sideways. Before he could stumble, however, a strong arm reached up and seized his elbow, yanking him back to land on the mat in an uncoordinated heap, half leaning against Jim.

"You know better," his Sentinel growled.

"Yeah, I do. I know. But…man!" Blair grinned, his enthusiasm not dimmed one bit.

"Tell us what you have learned, and I will share my own observations," Benton said.

"Well, the big news is that both of you guys," Jonny pointed to Kaimi and Melly, "are full Guides with Seventh senses. And Ngama and Angie have that little whatever-it-is that gives them that, too. So you'll be like us when you're ready."

"When will that happen?" Melly wanted to know.

"When you bond with your Sentinel," Ivanna told her. "A very few spirits are wise enough to reach the Seventh without that connection, but it has been done."

Jim thought of Incacha and nodded.

"So a little while yet," Brian smiled at his girls. Angie was Ngama's age, but with Melly so much younger, they had some time to learn everything else before taking that step, as did Ngama and Kaimi. Plus, thus far no one really knew yet how to do it and no one wanted to encourage the route Blair and Jim and later Jonny and Hadji had taken. Even Ivanna had only the barest knowledge of the bond, that it was possible, but not how it was forged other than in a near-death experience. Apparently, with bonded Sentinels and Guides, their bonding was rather...private.

"In fact," Blair surged back into the conversation, "there are only a few Sentinels here at all that don't have the Seventh. And…I don't know how, but I wasn't surprised by any of them. I think it's something we can kind of tell by looking, even if I don't know how yet."

"You are correct," Ivanna nodded. "You will learn to perceive the light in others and then you will know."

"That's very good progress," Benton smiled. "Now, would you like to see my results?"

"Will we understand them?" Jim asked, finally getting to his feet and giving his Guide a hand.

"Maybe I'd better summarize first," Benton acknowledged, ignoring the sniggering that erupted.

"Based on previous observations as well as anecdotal evidence, I had surmised that that the Sixth and Seventh senses are, indeed, means of perception. However, they are unlike the five senses to which we are accustomed, some of us more than others," he smiled at Jonny.

"I'm going to have to simplify this almost to the point of inaccuracy, but I think you will forgive me. Now, you know that the matter in your bodies is formed out of particles, correct?"

"You mean the atoms that physically bond together?" Kaimi asked.

"Yes, precisely. And you know that there are sub-atomic particles involved which are so small and so complex that they may be understood as little points of energy rather than bits of matter, which are the root of the study of quantum mechanics?"

The others nodded and Benton took a deep breath.

"All right. In some interpretations of quantum mechanics, there is something which is called the 'observer effect.' This effect is shown when we measure a quantum system, that the act of our measuring it will, in fact, affect the end state of the system. To put it more simply, if I am looking out the window at a ball moving through the air, the act of my observing the ball may actually impact its trajectory. This, I believe, is what truly fuels the Seventh sense."

"You are implying that we, as observers," Hadji gestured to himself and Blair, "actually cause a change in the state of that which we observe and it is this ability that allows us to accomplish the acts we have witnessed?"

"Yes, but it's much more complicated than just that," Benton nodded. "There is also the role the Sentinel plays in it. Now, this is pure speculation – I don't have the equipment to measure this. But, there is also an aspect of quantum mechanics wherein particles change position instantly from one place to another. They must be going somewhere. I believe that is how the bond between Sentinel and Guide works on a physical level, and why it impacts the Seventh sense."

"So…the particles in my brain, in the course of being particles, flip in and out of existence," Jonny said slowly. "And when they flip out, they could actually be bouncing over to Hadji's brain and his are bouncing into mine. And that's where our connection comes from?"

"It is possible," Benton acknowledged. "There isn't a machine in the world that could show that, however. But we also know that entangled particles are dependent on one another, and the shape of one must necessarily define the shape of the other. So perhaps the existence of whatever it is that permits you to observe and thereby affect matter also binds the very particles of your bodies and minds together to make them interdependent."

"That's pretty wild, Doc," Jim said.

"Indeed. There has been speculation in the scientific community that the observer effect may be more powerful than we even realize, that certain constants such as matter and time _only_ exist because they are able to be perceived. So perhaps whatever it is that makes Guides special is that which allows creation to be observed, and therefore to exist."

"So, this room is here _because_ we can see it," Blair said. "And if nobody can see it, if no living thing can perceive it, maybe it isn't. And we, as Guides, can see other things. When we're beyond the Seventh Door, we can see the fabric of the universe. We really can. And that's why we can change it. Because our ability to perceive it has inherently given us the ability to change it when we're in that heightened state of awareness."

"It's all theory and hypothesis," Benton warned. "And the science itself is so complex it would take a lifetime for a far better physicist than I to unravel it all."

"Out of curiosity," Jim asked as he absorbed the rest of what had been said, "what did you find when you measured Jonny using the normal Sentinel senses? You didn't say before."

Benton smiled secretly. "Nothing I can yet prove, but there was a very provocative result that bears more testing."

"And what was that?" Blair wanted to know, ignoring Jonny's audible groan.

"In cases of _extremely_ faint sensory stimuli such as a single grain of salt in a portion of purified water, Jonny's brain did not register his perception of the salt with the nerve center that is normally used to process the input of taste. In fact, he used the same portion that was lit up just now. As if he were not tasting the salt but rather his mind was informed in some other way that salt ought to be there."

"So, perhaps," Ngama said after a moment's surprised silence, "it is not only that a Sentinel can perceive the world more closely, but, in fact, that a Sentinel has the capacity to recall the history of a bouncing particle, like a scent carried on the wind, but on the quantum level?"

"It is possible," Benton shrugged. "I have no way to prove it, and no way to test it. But it could explain a few things we could not explain before."

"So…we learned a new theory," Kaimi said. "But the reality is that the only thing we're sure of right now is who has a Seventh. Everything else is a lot of maybes and possiblys."

"That is how most quantum mechanics discussions go, yes." Benton smiled at her.

"No, not quite," Blair said, looking at Jim.

"Oh?" His Sentinel raised an eyebrow.

"We did learn who has a Seventh, and you and Jonny learned how to anchor us and how to see through the Seventh Door even if you can't go there yourselves, and now we know someday we'll be teaching it to Kaimi and Melly as well. But I think we're sure of one more thing now."

"What's that, Chief?"

"That the place outside space and time beyond the Door is truly where a Guide belongs," Blair answered. "And as long as you come with me, I won't be lost there."

"Then don't go there without us again," Jonny said to his brother, and though he smiled when he said it, his eyes were serious.

"Do not fear," Hadji told him with his own serene smile. "For if all is as it must be, in even the most cosmic sense, then all will be well. For we are never apart from you when we are everywhere at once."

"I'm way more confused than I was before," Rafe said, shaking his head.

"I think we all are," Blair laughed.

"No," Jim said quietly. "Not all of us."

And he smiled at his Guide and Blair knew everything was alright. Whatever else, Jim had seen, had sensed, had felt it. And he knew that where they belonged was here, together, in whatever part of reality or existence needed them both.

And as long as a Sentinel and a Guide faced it united, there was nothing they could not accomplish.


End file.
